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Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia, by Donald Rayfield
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Georgia is the most Western-looking state in today’s Near or Middle East and, despite having one of the longest, most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world, no proper history of the country has been written for decades. Donald Rayfield redresses this balance in Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia, focusing not merely on the post-Soviet era, but on the whole of its history, accessing a mass of new material from the country’s recently opened archives.
The book begins with the first intimations of the existence of Georgians in ancient Anatolia and ends with today’s volatile President Saakashvili. It deals not only with the country’s internal politics, but with its complex struggles with the empires which have tried to control, fragment or even exterminate the country. All world history – Xenophon’s Greeks, the Arabs, the invading Turks, the Crusades, Chingiz Khan and Timur Lang, the Persian empire, the Russian empire, Soviet totalitarianism – is reflected in Georgia’s history.
Donald Rayfield describes Georgia’s swings between disintegration and unity, making full use of primary sources, many not available before in English. He examines the history of a country which, though small, stands at a crossroads between Russia and the Muslim world, between Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and is a dramatic example of state-building and, also, of tragic political mistakes.
- Sales Rank: #874435 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-02-26
- Released on: 2013-02-26
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
“Donald Rayfield’s Edge of Empires is a wonderful history of Georgia, lifting the lid on that country's torrid, rambunctious past (and present). Impeccably researched, limpidly written and full of insight.”
(William Boyd, Books of the Year, The Guardian)
“Donald Rayfield’s panoramic Edge of Empires is an impressive work that helps us understand why this south Caucasus nation of 6.4m people lodged in a hostile and unstable neighbourhood looks so longingly to the West. . . . Edge of Empires is the most wide-ranging and reliable history of Georgia one is likely to find for many years to come.”
(Tony Barber, Financial Times)
“[An] ambitious and comprehensive history of a complex country. . . . Mr. Rayfield’s powerful theme is of brief periods of prosperity and security, ended by invasion, conquest, looting and despoliation.”
(The Economist)
“The most comprehensive and up-to-date history of Georgia available in English. This tour de force explains why the small south Caucasus nation looks longingly to the west. A work of consummate erudition from Britain’s foremost expert on Georgian history and literature.” ("Books of the Year," Financial Times)
“Rayfield offers the most comprehensive and detailed survey history of the country of Georgia to date. . . . An excellent and indispensable reference for libraries, studies, researchers, and general readers. Essential.” (Choice)
2013 Outstanding Academic Title (Choice magazine)
About the Author
Donald Rayfield is professor emeritus of Russian and Georgian in the Department of Russian, Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him.
Most helpful customer reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
Cramped, confusing, and often dull
By Le Panda Du Mal
The goal of telling the history of Georgia inherently presents a huge challenge to any historian- it is not only long, but owing to the fragmented character of the country, and the frequent invasions and infighting, extremely tumultuous, complicated, and confusing. The sheer violence of Georgian history makes it seem a miracle that the Georgian people are still around. It is not impossible to tell their story, but it does need to be told with a level of care, patience, and attention to detail that Donald Rayfield does not display here. I am honestly amazed to see all the glowing reviews of this book- I have soldiered through many a tedious book but this is quite possibly the most tedious history I've endured.
To put it briefly, the book often reads like Rayfield did little more than throw all of his notes together between two covers. In fact, in some places, I am certain that this is exactly what he did, since there is at least one part where he forgot to convert the notes into complete sentences. In Chapter 2, in the middle of a paragraph about a King Rev, the following text appears: "Family connections- Rev may be a son of King Vologas II of Armenia, and thus have established the Arsacid dynasty in Iberia; he married a Greek princess named Sephelia- kept Iberia out of the war." Clearly, the book was rushed and little attempt was made to make it interesting reading.
The early chapters are especially bad- a bewildering succession of kings and wars is trotted out with all the excitement of the list of "begats" at the beginning of St. Matthew's gospel. At first I assumed Rayfield was doing this because of the scantiness of solid historical sources for this period, but his narration of later eras improves little. What emerges as a dominant flaw throughout the book is a lack of color- interesting anecdotes are few and are given little to no context. Rayfield tantalizes the reader with scattered, brief quotes from primary sources and then disappoints him by providing nothing further. Even highly important figures such as Queen Tamar, Davit the Builder, Erekle II, Beria, or Stalin are portrayed with distressing faintness. Developments in Georgian culture are barely alluded to. Illustrations and pictures of the various people, places, and artifacts described are also scanty and a sense of human interest is largely absent. What was life like in Georgia in any of the periods Rayfield describes? A reader of this book will come away with nothing more specific than "pretty damn rough." If the reader were not already somewhat familiar with Georgian culture, he would have no idea from this book what makes Georgian culture and history so fascinating, or what would animate someone to write (or read) a book about it.
Rayfield says surprisingly little about the Georgian Orthodox Church, considering its immense importance in Georgian political and cultural life. Some major developments, such as the acceptance of the council of Chalcedon, are barely mentioned. Or later, when, say, a Catholicos shows openness toward entering communion with Rome, the book gives no insight as to what would lead to such a monumental shift or how others in the Church perceived or discussed it. Some details the book simply gets wrong, such as describing the Church as initially a dependency of Constantinople (it was actually under Antioch). Reflecting an inappropriate Latin mindset, Rayfield describes the liturgy as "Mass" and the Orthodox monks as "Basilian." When Russia annexes Georgia, Rayfield tell us that the Sioni Cathedral was made to say prayers in "Russian"- actually, it would have been Church Slavonic; not even Russian churches pray in Russian. He wrongly identifies St. Grigol Peradze, who died in Auschwitz in place of a Jewish prisoner, as a Catholic priest- he was Orthodox.
Discussing the various ethnic and cultural groups in and around Georgia (e.g. Abkhaz, Lezgi, Khevsurs) is another extremely weak point of the book. If someone is reading Edge of Empires to learn about Georgian history, it can be reasonably assumed that he doesn't know much about these other groups as well, but Rayfield gives them little or no introduction and provides no clue as to how these groups differ culturally, linguistically, or politically from Georgians. Even Georgian sub-groups like Svans or Tush are given short shrift- one gets little sense of the rugged and fierce reputation Svans enjoy in Georgian culture. What distinguishes Ajaria from other Georgian cultures? I have no idea after reading this book Perhaps most relevantly to current events, Rayfield says pretty much nothing after the early chapters (and not much there either) about the development of the Abkhaz culture and Abkhaz identity, and its important differences from Georgian culture.
On the very remote chance that Donald Rayfield cares what Amazon reviewers say, some suggestions for a revised edition:
1. The fractious nature of Georgian history requires a lot of jumping around from one region to another- chapter subdivisions would have been helpful, along with some bolder narrative threads to keep everything together.
2. Expand on everything. I mean everything. Especially the medieval parts. If it means splitting the book into several volumes, that may be what is necessary. Provide more anecdotes, quotes from primary sources, and lots of pictures.
3. Add a who's-who appendix, with brief biographies of all the important or semi-important actors.
4. Get a collaborator or two. Such a complicated and monumental task as presenting a comprehensive history of Georgia needs all the help it can get.
As it stands, the only real advantage this book enjoys is being the first one in English to tackle the complete history of Georgia. Hopefully, either it will be substantively improved in later editions, or someone else will publish a better one.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Endless struggles and horror
By othoniaboys
I previously had only a very sketchy idea of the history of Georgia. I now see, only too clearly, that the history of this small nation has been full of struggles and horror. The author provides an extremely detailed and comprehensive narrative. It was nothing but fight, fight, fight. The Georgians, when they weren't busy fighting the Turks, Iranians and Russians, were busy with internal strife and dynastic conflicts. It is a wonder that anything was left after all the bloodshed.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Difficult first have, better second half
By Matthew Lerner
The first half of the book, going from ancient times until the Russian occupation at the start of the nineteenth century, is a real rough read, and the reason I took so long to finish the book. Rayfield, easily one of the foremost English historians on Georgia, effectively just lists off kings and battles. It seriously at times simply goes "this king began his reign this year, and married this wife, had these children, and fought these battles. He died this year, and then this king came along." For nearly 200 pages it goes on like that, real dry reading, the type of thing you'd expect from early medieval chronicles or something of the sort.
However this is partially redeemed in the second half. The writing definitely improves, and there is more to it than listing off rulers, though that still plays a prominent part until the (temporary) end of Russian rule (1918-21). This section provided a lot of information and details, though he is somewhat critical of the Georgians as a whole at times, suggesting that because Mein Kampf and The Prince are best sellers in 2010 or so means they lack political sophistication. To try and paint an entire country of 4 million like that is near impossible to do, and not something that should have been included.
The book also lacks on the sourcing, and maps. Now, granted I can understand if the publishers wanted to limit the endnotes/bibliography, but its quite pitiful, there only being a handful of sources listed, and few endnotes to consult. As for the maps, they were real small and hard to properly consult, which was a shame considering the volatile nature of the region throughout history. Better maps would definitely help people trying to read the book to try to understand where things were happening, and not have cities/landmarks printed in microscopic type.
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